Tape Data Eradication Service

International conglomerate recovers value from languishing media

A global, diversified company that provides vital products and services to customers in Electronics, Fire & Security and Healthcare was seeking to rationalize costs associated with storage technology transistions.

The firm had found that the rapid adoption of new storage technologies delivering performance and cost benefits had worked to their advantage in gaining a competitive edge. Inevitably, though, it also led to accelerated decommissioning and disposal of still-useful technology.

In one recent tape technology transition PeakData worked to mitigate the cost of that disposal thereby improving the ROI of the company’s technology upgrade.

Specifically, the firm had more than 1,000 9940 tapes (many that required eradication of sensitive data). Some of these tapes were new, labeled and initialized. Others, merely new. Sorting through this maze and valuing all the tapes while securely repurposing the used ones, ended up returning tens of thousands of dollars to the company’s IT budget.

And while they did get a substantial amount of money back, through the DoD compliant (5220.2-M) eradication process they got something of even greater value – peace of mind.

Don’t Erase — Eradicate

To the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Clearing Standard (DOD 5220.22-M, DOD 5220.22-M ECE) and the Department of Energy Clearing, Sanitization and Destruction Standard (M 205.1-2)

Did you know?

Every tape that leaves your control is a ticking time bomb that could cost you millions if it is misplaced?
Every piece of media is your responsibility, essentially forever, regardless of which third party has taken physical possession?
You can protect yourself from litigation, regulatory fines and customer notification expenses and do so cost-effectively, without disrupting your ongoing IT operations?

Developing a sound data protection strategy is one of the more complex tasks faced by today’s IT organizations. Historically, company concerns have centered only on access (i.e., authentication and authorization), backup and recovery or business continuity.

Today, an increasing number of regulatory requirements that govern the protection of personal information (e.g., health records, financial statements, credit/debit card information, social security numbers, etc.) are causing companies to continually reexamine how they protect information from getting out of their control.

The last few years have seen an increased awareness of information that has been compromised due to lost or missing magnetic tapes that were in transit. While losing tapes is not a new phenomenon, what has changed is the laws that force companies to disclose the mishap. Organizations have reacted by attempting to either eliminate physical transport altogether -- by sending data electronically – or, at a minimum, encrypting tapes that leave the physical security of the data center.

For tapes that are no longer needed companies are faced with the dilemma of how to properly eradicate data in the most cost-effective manner.

PeakData’s Tape Data Eradication Service provides complete eradication of data from tapes, protecting a company’s hard-earned reputation and trustworthiness by preventing confidential information from falling into the wrong hands. PeakData’s software-based technology ensures secure eradication and provides the detailed reporting required to meet today’s state and local government and industry regulatory compliance requirements, customer and employee privacy legislation, and security mandates. As a result customers are insulated exposure to legal liabilities or loss of corporate assets. Key benefits include:

On-site service delivery with no impact to production operations; or, off-site at one of PeakData’s secure, state-of-the-art facilities

Eradication of data using overwriting to a predefined standard, from 1 to n passes, in every bit position and on every track in varying patterns over the entire length of the tape
All tape types are supported: mainframe or open systems; enterprise, midrange, or desktop; with or without servo track
Fully configurable to meet any applicable standard, including the U.S. Department of Defense Sanitizing Standard (DOD 5220.22-M, DOD 5220.22-M ECE) and the Department of Energy Clearing, Sanitization and Destruction Standard (M 205.1-2)

Fortunately, there is help available. PeakData is a company with 20 years experience helping customers achieve the necessary business and technology architecture to assure appropriate access to archived data at a cost that can be surprisingly affordable.

Record Retention Examples
Industry	Regulation(s)	Information / Implication	Retention Period
Financial Services	Check 21	Check Images	7 years
	SEC 17a-3, a-4	Type of information required	6 years
	NASD 3010 / 3110	Similar to SEC 17a-3, a-4	6 years

Public Companies > $75M	Sarbanes Oxley	Financial audit and reporting documents	7 years

Healthcare	HIPAA	Medical records	Min. 6 years or 2 years after death
Healthcare	42 CFR	Medical records for Medicare	5 years

Food & Drug	21 CFR Part 11	All FDA regulated programs
		Food mfg, processing, packaging	2 years after release
		Drug mfg, processing, packaging	3 years after distribution
		Biological product mfg records	5 years

All	U.S. Patriot Act	Customer records, financial activity	5 years after record made or account closed
All	U.S. Patriot Act	Customer records, financial activity	5 years after record made or account closed

Financial / Medical	Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act	Disclosure of non-public personal information	N/A